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Advice to Graduating Eighth Graders

Some advice for those who are going to begin one of the most important phases: High School

For many adults, this is quite difficult to do. Your parents, especially, will want to think of you as a little kid with little ideas. Don’t be surprised if your parents call your first steady date “your little girl/boyfriend.” They don’t mean to be insulting. They haven’t gotten used to the fact that you are becoming an adult. Be patient with them. If you are the oldest in the family, you have even more work to do. Just don’t take it personally when you feel demeaned or belittled by adults. They don’t yet understand how complex and mature you have become.

12. What? This is my outfit now.

13. Pure joy.

You have no idea how deeply you can love and how much you can bear until you hold your baby for the first time, cry with your child over their first broken heart and wait for hours on end at a hospital murmuring every prayer you have ever known.